Hey everyone. Long time no see. Let me start off this new LJ feature with an apology, folks. The Exalted and Scion side of IPD&D has weathered its share of problems these past few months, and you, the fans, have dealt with a series of delays in the lines that has culminated in a significant delay to Dreams of the First Age, Exalted’s first boxed set. And rather than being there to keep you up to date on what was happening with your favorite game lines, I was nowhere to be found. Between the overwork that came in trying to wrestle the Exalted line back on track and my own trepidation about exposing myself to the vitriolic fury of the message boards, I made the mistake of removing myself, the Exalted fans’ greatest resource, from the community just when you folks most wanted to know what was happening. As anyone who’s met me at a con knows, I love talking to fans face to face, but the Luddite in me distrusts this new decades-old emerging technology men call the Interweb. Basically, instead of just getting over it and being there for you, I choked. Mea culpa. It won’t happen again.

The reasons for the delays on Dreams of the First Age were numerous and frustrating to the point of Brian and myself wandering the WW offices screaming obscenities at everyone we encountered (which isn’t that unusual, except this time the screaming had a central theme running through it). Delays dogged the project from the get go. Most of them, we handled like we always do and kept the book on track, barely. However, the sheer volume of issues with which we’d dealt meant that, by the time the book hit editing, there was no margin for error. And of course, that’s when things went South. Despite what my own recent behavior might have you believe, we at White Wolf listen to the complaints you have and do our best to address them through our actions. There’d been a number of complaints about the editing on White Wolf’s books, so we used this project to try out a new editor. It didn’t go well. AT ALL! So the book had to be re-edited by Exalted’s own Carl Bowen. That need for a re-edit led to the first and most significant setback to the project, the one for which we announced the initial delay. Unfortunately, that first major delay was only the beginning. Every step of printing the boxed set has been dogged by printer problems and misunderstandings. In my 9+ years at White Wolf, I’ve never experienced anything that comes close to the cascading domino clusterf*** this became. When this whole project was announced, I just thought it would be cool to do a boxed set like the ones that were the standard back when I first got into gaming. To follow the theme of the day, this project was meant to be a love letter from myself to the hobby that’s meant so much to my life and allowed me to make my livelihood working alongside the best bunch of guys one could ever hope to meet. It never occurred to me to wonder why no one made these anymore. I just wanted to have an Exalted boxed set, with a big foldout map and multiple books and some dice like I remember picking up as a kid. Turns out, these sets don’t get made much anymore because they are really hard to produce and tend to create the same maddening problems with which we had to deal.

So, that’s the straight skinny on the boxed set delays. As of now, Dreams of the First Age is quite literally on a slow boat from China, headed to the US of A. As for the rest of the Exalted schedule, Brian and I have been doing all we can to keep things on track while dealing with Dreams of the First Age’s many problems, and I think we’ve got everything on track. Scroll of Kings should be in stores now, The Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. III—Yu-Shan and The Manual of Exalted Power—The Abyssals are currently at the printers, The Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. IV—The Underworld is in editing and due to go into layout next week, The Books of Sorcery, Vol. V—The Roll of Glorious Divinity II is in development and being art directed currently, first drafts are in for The Compass of Terrestrial Directions, Vol. III—The East, and writing is under way for Graceful Wicked Masques—The Fair Folk. Consider the release of the long-promised Charm cards (http://download.white-wolf.com/download/download.php?file_id=919) that had fallen by the wayside during the craziness of the last six months the most recent step to make sure all White Wolf’s promises are fulfilled, a set of Valentine’s Day cards sent to you guys to let you know we still care about you. Also, I haven’t forgotten you Scion fans. Scion: Ragnarök is in development now, and the first chunks of The Scion Companion are coming in.

Oh, and for those who’ve voiced concerns about the artistic side of Exalted, have no fear. Brian Glass has been scouring the globe for new artists to bring into his stable. His success can be seen on the cover for The Manual of Exalted Power—The Abyssals.

Not enough, eh? Well how about the cover art for Graceful Wicked Masques?

Pretty badass, huh?

Well, that’s it for this first of my ongoing series of LJ posts. I’ll be back in a week to explain the plan we’ve developed to deal with Exalted errata and to discuss Exalted playtesting. Happy Valentine’s Day, guys.